An important bronze figure of Padmapani

SWAT VALLEY, 6TH/7TH CENTURY

細節

An important bronze figure of Padmapani
Swat Valley, 6th/7th Century
Standing in samapada on a double-lotus base with his right hand raised in abhaya mudra, his left hand lowered holding a lotus stem issuing from the base, the stem finely stippled and rising to a bulbous flowerhead, wearing a short dhoti tied with a sash at the waist and with the hemline undulating down the side, his rounded face with fine aquiline nose and silver-inlaid eyes beneath incised arched brows, his hair intricately braided and tied in an elaborate topknot surmounted by a stele of Buddha Amitabha, with double strands of hair falling down on his shoulders, an antelope skin draped across his shoulder, the base with a three-part inscription in Brahmi script
11 in. (29.2 cm.) high

來源

Pan-Asian Collection
Previously sold at Christie's London, March 27, 1972, lot 181.

出版

P. Pal, Bronzes of Kashmir, 1975, cat. no. 82.
P. Pal, The Sensuous Immortals, 1978, cat. no. 21.
U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, 1981, fig. 5C.
D.E. Klimburg-Salter, The Silk Route and The Diamond Path, Esoteric Buddhist Art on the Trans-Himalayan Trade Routes, 1982, pl. 15, p. 98.
C.L. Reedy, Himalayan Bronzes, Technology, Style, and Choices, 1997, fig. A9, pp. 136-38.

拍品專文

This remarkable bronze figure of Padmapani displays a number of distinct stylistic criteria that offer various attributions. In the slender outline and linear treatment of the dhoti it strongly relates to a Kashmiri bronze of Bodhisattva Maitreya, dated to the 7th/8th Century, sold at Christie's New York, 17 September 1998, lot 24, illustrated in U. von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, pl. 9E, with the silver-inlaid eyes also being characteristic of Kashmiri bronzes. In the facial features, however, it is more closely related to another bronze figure of Maitreya, from the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, attributed to the Swat Valley region, see P. Pal, Bronzes of Kashmir, cat. no. 38; compare also to a bronze figure of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Padmapani), cf. P. Pal, The Ideal Image, The Gupta Sculptural Tradition and Its Influence, 1978, cat. no. 70. Pal discusses the paleographical peculiarities of the inscription in cursive Brahmi script giving the donor's name to be Vatravijaya. Taking the stylistic criteria of the inscription into account and by relating the modeling of the body, the treatment of the lotus, as well as the pleats of the dhoti to fifth century Gupta models from the Sarnath area, a sixth century date and a regional attribution to the Swat Valley appears most likely.
The elaborate hairstyle with braid-like rows of hair as well as the stippling of the stem of the lotus appear to be specific features of a group of Sirpur bronzes that in their mature style are generally dated to circa 800. D.E. Klimburg-Salter, The Silk Route, p. 98, stylistically relates this figure to sculptures from Fondukistan and Pandrethan dating from the first quarter of the eighth century, all having a common Indian or Chinese Central Asian source, indicative of an exchange between northwestern India, the Himalayas, and Chinese Central Asia during the seventh and eighth centuries. Most recently, C. Reedy concludes a regional attribution to Afghanistan while adhering to the sixth century date, based on technological examinations and with regard to an international style in a region of crossroads, see Himalayan Bronzes, p. 138.